UConn Falls To Boise State, 38-21

EAST HARTFORD — If we're being honest then you can't deny that the UConn football team looked a lot better in Week 3 than it did in Weeks 1 and 2.

If you saw the Huskies rumble Saturday with Boise State but fall 38-21, that would be an honest assessment.

The Broncos (2-1) rolled up 676 yards but it must have felt like 1,000 on Colorado State last week. The UConn defense held Boise State to 292 yards of total offense — just two more than the Huskies themselves.

One of the nation's leading rushers, junior tailback Jay Ajayi, was held to a measly 39 yards on 18 carries. He accounted for 280 yards and three touchdowns against CSU last week.

The defense had a few stings, a couple of coverage mistakes that hurt, but overall it was very good. Special teams were fine, too. Justin Wain is a serious punter. He averaged 42 yards on seven punts, including a 53-yard spiral late in the first quarter. And his burying Boise State often was a good thing for the UConn defense as well.

The Boise State running back compiled 1,425 yards in 2013, ranked 15th in the country. Through two games this season, he was fifth in the nation with 305 rushing yards and was coming off a 219-yard performance...

EAST HARTFORD — Jay Ajayi rolled into Rentschler Field with sterling national reputation.

The Boise State running back compiled 1,425 yards in 2013, ranked 15th in the country. Through two games this season, he was fifth in the nation with 305 rushing yards and was coming off a 219-yard performance...

(PAUL DOYLE)

But the offense continued to struggle, giving away the ball at inopportune times.

The Broncos scored 21 points on UConn turnovers, one of those things that cause losing and that the Huskies were supposed to be dealing with. The Huskies will seek to overcome their turnover problems as they head into conference play beginning Friday night at South Florida.

Quarterback Chandler Whitmer (16 of 29, 209 yards, one touchdown) was intercepted twice in the fourth quarter, and Boise State converted both into touchdowns, the final one a 50-yard pick-six by Donte Deayon with four minutes left to secure the win.

"Fourteen uncontested points where the defense or the special teams is on the field against any opponent we're going to play becomes impossible to win the games let alone a national-branded powerhouse," UConn coach Bob Diaco said after the game. "When you factor in another plus-field turnover, you're talking about 21 points, 14 completely uncontested and the other one is a plus-field setup. That has to get solved. We're working hard to solve it and it's hard to win football games when you do that."

The plus-field turnover, meaning that it occurred in UConn territory, forced the Huskies to start the game in a hole again.

This has to be some kind of record, but when freshman Arkeel Newsome coughed up the ball on the fifth play of the game and Tanner Vallejo returned 31 yards for a touchdown to put Boise State up 7-0 with 2 minutes, 36 seconds gone, it marked the third consecutive game in which a UConn running back (Max DeLorenzo in Week 1 and Josh Marriner in Week 2) fumbled early in the first quarter leading to touchdowns.

That is an amazing feat, and the Huskies probably need to stop it if they want to continue to improve, and they also need to be more productive on offense. The defense did its job against the Boise State offense. Quarterback Grant Hendrick (19 of 27, 233 yards, two touchdowns), who has explosive abilities, was held in check, too.

UConn (1-2) had 18 first downs but only 290 yards. If a first down is worth 10 yards, how much more room did that leave for big plays? The Huskies had two of what would be considered explosive plays — gains of 25 yards or more in the air — one a 48-yard connection between Whitmer and Deshon Foxx (6 catches for 107 yards) and the other a 25-yard reception by Geremy Davis (3 catches for 47 yards). But the Huskies aren't going to win many games if Davis doesn't have more than three catches.

Deayon stole what would have been his fourth catch in the fourth quarter, returning it for a touchdown.

"I should have played defense on that one," Davis said simply.

The play developed this way: Hendrick fell coming from under center on a fourth-and-4 at the UConn 34. The Huskies took over at their own 39, and on third-and-1, Whitmer tried to fit a tight ball into Davis on a slant. He and Deayon met the ball, fought for it and Deayon came away with it and raced into the end zone untouched.

The play looked strangely familiar. Whitmer was picked off two UConn possessions earlier by Jonathan Moxey going to Foxx on the same route.

The Huskies were only down 24-21 at the time.

Backbreakers — both of them.

"I tried to put it low and away and he went down there and got it," said Whitmer, who threw for just 58 of his 209 yards in the second half. "The second one, I didn't even think he had. I threw the pass and thought Geremy had it and ... [Deayon's] running down the field with the ball. I tried to be smart, try to not make any dumb decisions out there and I think I did that, but it still hurt us, shot us in the foot. You have to learn from it and try to get better."

Here's another little thing that causes losing — not being able to run the ball. If the Huskies were able to do it a little bit, it would have made the Broncos play a little more honestly. Unlike last week against Stony Brook, UConn's receivers made Boise State pay for focusing on the run — but, boy, did they focus on the run.

UConn had a total of 48 yards rushing. The Huskies have yet to crack the 100-yard mark as a team, let alone a running back doing it himself.

At UConn, those were the good old days.

And another little thing: Whitmer was sacked seven times.

"You know, their front seven was pretty good," said right tackle Andreas Knappe, who was playing in his first game after missing the first two with a lower leg injury. "They were disciplined, sound in their assignment. They hit hard, fast. They were good up front."

The defense showed signs of firing the way that Diaco and defensive coordinator Anthony Poindexter and co-defensive coordinator Vincent Brown want to see it fire.

It's the offense. It's always been the offense. Moving forward, it's going to have to change or no one should expect the final results to be different.

"I think we just have to get better up front," Diaco said. "And they're working hard, trying hard. They're pouring their hearts out. We've got a lot of young, young players in that lineup."